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NEW DELHI: Railways has said it is reviewing the flexi-fare ticketing system introduced in elite trains — Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duranto and may slash the prices of the tickets.

The transporter also said there is no plan to hike the fares of other trains as well. Minister of state for railways Manoj Sinha said, "the fares of the train won't increase."

Railways has earned around Rs 540 crore in less than a year after introducing the flexi-fare system, but it was flooded with complaints from the passengers about high prices of tickets.

It has also noticed that several seats were left vacant due to high ticket prices in several trains.

Railway minister Piyush Goyal said, "The issue of the flexi-fare scheme has been brought to my notice by the people. It could be improved in a way that it meets the revenue target without hurting people's pocket."

Asked if there could be any amendment to the system, Goyal said, "There is possibility of some changes."

The scheme, launched on September 9 last year and applicable to premium trains such as the Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto, allows 10% of the seats to be sold at normal fare and thereafter increasing it in phases by 10% with every 10% of berths sold, with a ceiling of a 50% rise.

According to the data, railways earned an additional revenue of Rs 540 crore from September 2016 to June 2017 through this scheme.
There was no change in the existing fare for 1AC and EC class.

On December 19, railways started to provide 10% rebate on any seat left vacant after the preparation of the chart.

Oct 07 2017 : The Times of India (Ahmedabad)
Goyal calls for innovation in rail safety, says money no bar
New Delhi:
PTI
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Railway minister Piyush Goyal on Friday called for innovation in making the railways safer while stressing that enough money is available for the purpose.

Speaking at the International Conference on Technological Advancements in Railway and Metro Projects, Goyal also said that budget allocations are a limitation and tend to hold back research and innovation.

“Personally , I believe a budget is a limitation, it holds you back. Allocation of a budget doesn't allow scientists to flourish as he wants to. Budgets restrict innovation,“ said Goyal as he called for out-of-the-box thinking to improve rail safety features like as signaling systems and fog vision for locomotive pilots.

The railways is embarking on a massive programme to ensure safety of the entire network, he said. “As much money as required is available for safety.

“I am not even saying it will be made available, I am saying it is available,“ he said, adding that he cannot make the railways safe without new ideas and he hoped that the conference will help generate innovations.

The rail minister also pointed to Vice President Venkaiah Naidu's speech on September 27 at the IISc Bengaluru where he said that innovation plays a key role in driving the knowledge-based economy .

To highlight his point, Goyal said that the last time a train with additional speed, comfort and safety features was introduced was way back in 1969 -the Rajdhani Express.

“From 1969 to 2017 we have not embarked on any major new technological initiative that will take us to international standards of passenger safety , comfort, convenience and speed,“ he said.

Japan, he said, has progressed technologically as it has managed to create an ecosystem where scientists and researchers can think out-of-the-box.

“Our plan for the future is to create an ecosystem where the scientific community will choose to stay in India and not go to NASA,“ the minister said.

He said the railways is open to engaging with experts in improving the environment, stations and passenger convenience.

Enumerating his expectations from the scientific community , Goyal said he needs technology and knowhow to improve driver vision during foggy weather, make the signaling system better, manufacture tracks faster and more efficiently , and predict track failures or fractures.

“I do believe that the time has come for us to aggressively go in for newer technologies and better ways of doing work. We will have to work collectively to see what can be done faster and smarter,“ he said.
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Oct 07 2017 : The Times of India (Ahmedabad)
ON A SHAKY TRACK - No change of fate for Amritsar railway station since Partition
Yudhvir Rana
Amritsar:
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No. Of Trains Increases, But No Change In Infrastructure
On an average nearly 20,000 people use the Amritsar railway station and approximately 70 trains pass through it every day. So, it does come as a surprise that such a busy station has not been renovated since the partition even as successive governments at the Centre have maked numerous promises over the years.

At the time of the partition, the railway station had six platforms, three railway overbridg es and four retiring rooms.Over the years, there has been an increase in the number of trains and passengers, but the number of platforms, retiring rooms and overbridges remained the same.

Only additions are to the station a new ticket reservation counter, toilets and an escalator. The lifts have been constructed but are yet to be operational. In the past an attempt was add another platform but it didn't materialise due to space constrain.

Broken promises

Talking to TOI, former deputy superintendent of the Amitsar railway station N S Gabharia said that in the absence of additional platforms, many trains, including the Shatabdi Express, are forced to wait at the outer signal.

Gabhraia, who retired on December 31, 2001, said several ministers have made many promises over the years to develop the station and provide world-class. However, no such development has been visible till now. In the 2014-15 budget the railway department had made a provision to establish a world-class food court.

Another announcement was made in recent past by the former Union railway minister Suresh Prabhu that the department had planned to allocate Rs 1,000 crore for the redevelopment pro gramme at the Amritsar railway station. He said the tenders for the same would be floated soon.

The tourism ministry had also announced a sanction of Rs 13 crore for the construction of an executive lounge on the first floor of the railway station. “The only restaurant here closed its busi ness a long time ago,“ said Gabhraia.

Amritsar railway station superintendent Alok Malhotra agreed with Gabharai's statement. He said that after the partition, there were five platforms and an additional 1 (A) to cater to the need of the passengers. At that time, 15-20 trains passed through the station every day.

Now 70 years after Independence, the number of platforms remained the same but the number of trains passing through Amritsar has reached nearly 70.

He also said that the development work of Amritsar railway station is likely to start from November.

Gabharia said that facility of VIP quota reservation had suffered after the post of the divisional traffic manager was shifted from Amritsar to Ferozpur. This too might be a reason for its neglect.

With ever increasing number of passengers, operations of many diesel multiple unit (DMU) trains were shifted to nearby railway stations like Verka and Bhagatanwala.

“Quality of food available at the station has dropped drastically and there is no medical help at the station in case of an emergency,“ said Rampal Sharma, a daily commuter.

IN A SHAMBLES

During a visit to railway station, TOI also noticed that a model of Jallianwala Bagh was lying near the dilapidated building opposite to the old ticket booking window. The building was declared unsafe in 2014.Moreover, TOI spotted there was nobody at the tourist help desk.

CASES AGAINST TRESPASSERS

Inspector Arun Londhe of Railway Protection Force said on an average, 5-7 cases of trespassing are registered daily.He said there were unauthorized vendors who are also challaned and removed.Sources said even porters cross the tracks with luggage.
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Oct 01 2017 : The Economic Times (Mumbai)
Deathtrap? So What, it's Also a Lifeline
Brian Carvalho
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Death is a constant companion on the Mumbai local. After Friday's stampede, it got closer
If you haven't been a regular commuter on the Mumbai local -on any of its three main lines -it's perhaps difficult to grasp the import of the word `lifeline'.

Not just because the network ferries over 7 million -roughly 40% of the city's population -every day. Not just because it's the fastest way to get to work or home. Not only because there are com muters who spend as many as five hours of the day on the train itself. Not because there's a train arriving every two min utes for 21 hours of the day (from 4 am to 1 o'clock the next morning).

The Mumbai local is also a lifeline be cause, after decades of hanging out on the footboard and occasionally cutting across the tracks to get a foot into that 9.53 am local, you're still alive. You're not among those statistics who fell off an overcrowded rake, or got electrocuted when travelling on the roof (mostly, it's not for kicks but in the quest for a relatively secure seat), or got run over when crossing the tracks. Hell, you've even survived bomb blasts and terrorist attacks.

Yet, when you read yesterday's headlines screaming that 22 were crushed to death in a stampede on a bridge at a railway station, `lifeline' would have seemed a bad joke, a limp truism. Deathtrap perhaps was the word flashing in front of your eyes.

Deathtrap? Stampedes are after all known to happen in the hinterlands, around places of worship, in small-town melas not in the country's capital of commerce.

Then again, the local train was always a hazardous ride. But you survived because, once inside, you were mostly okay. Derailments are rare -at least, rarer than the national average -and bombs under the seat even rarer.

It can be slightly different when you're ambling on an archaic, constricted bridge amid a horde of humanity in a hurry. Anything can happen -a stampede perhaps now seems as likely as your pocket getting picked.Yes, this is paranoia, but you're forgiven. It's only 48 hours since the tragedy and it will take some time to erase the stains of blood, and not just those on the bridge.

You have a right to be insecure. You need that train. You need that quarterly pass. You need that space, be it the window seat or the footboard. You need that overbridge.

All Aboard!

So what if it was built almost half a century ago. It's still safer than crossing the tracks. Or is it? That's the question that's keeping you awake, taking you away from your work, your family, your life. They've promised a new bridge at Elphinstone station, pronto. They had actually sanctioned it a year ago, but let bygones be bygones. However, hang on a minute. There are over 130 stations across the three main railway lines (and another 10 if you include the Trans-Harbour link). You're not sure how many were built by the British, and you're too scared to hazard a guess. Imagine if you were a travelling salesman in Maximum City -you could call the game Mumbai Roulette.

Some wise soul from another city may well advise you: “Stop taking the train.Use the road.“

You shrug. They just won't understand what the train means. The train you took to college, to work, to that home you bought in the boondocks across the creek... those times you needed that last train and not always because you were working.

You left the city, made friends with the metro, and you kept telling new-found acquaintances that there's nothing like the Mumbai Local.Your chest swelled with pride.Distance can often lead to delusion.

On Monday morning, you'll be back. You'll be tempted to use that app on your phone.But you'll take the auto-rickshaw to the station, buy that ticket, and use the overbridge to get to platform No. 7. And take that 9.53 am local.

Death trap - Elphinstone Road station stampede - GRP, RPF, railway station staff given clean chit
Vinay Dalvi
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Dadar police officials have concluded that overcrowding during rush hour, and unexpected rains were responsible for the tragedy that claimed 23 lives
Investigation into the stampede at the foot overbridge connecting Parel and Elphinstone stations on Sep tember 29, is in its concluding stage with the Dadar police giving a clean chit to the Railway Police Force (RPF), Government Police Force (GRP) and the railway staff including the station master and the ticket booking staff. Dadar police officials, who are investigating the case, have recorded statements of close to 70 people including the kin of the deceased and the 39 injured. Only one survivor's statement is yet to be recorded since he left the city after the incident. The police have also recorded the statements of the station master of Elphinstone Road station Anil Gupta, an RPF constable who was present at the station during the stampede, and who informed the station master about the incident, and the booking clerk who was on duty at the ticket counter on the FOB at the time. It's been more than a week that the un fortunate incident took place, and the Dadar police have almost fin ished probing the tragedy. “We have concluded that the main reason for the deaths was the rain and the sudden overcrowding due to four trains simultaneously halting at the stations. We have asked the station master to provide us with details of the trains and how many people got down at Elphinstone and Parel stations ­ at least a rough idea of the footfalls. We have also written to Meteorological Department and BMC to get a confirmation that it rained at 10.26 am that day to confirm our claims,“ said a police officer from Dadar police station. Apart from the booking clerk, two GRP constables and an RPF constable were on duty at Elphinstone station then. “There was no dereliction of duty by anyone as per our investigation,“ said the police officer.

HC appoints amicus curiae to assist them in the case

Pulling up the “so-called activists“ for approaching it on the issue of safety of commuters only after the stampede, the Bombay High Court on Friday appointed a lawyer as amicus curiae to assist them in the matter. The court also asked why the petitioners woke up to the “serious and sensitive“ issue only after so many deaths.

“This is a serious problem but these petitioners before us only want to self-advertise. We are of the opinion that the cause is serious and sensitive and hence we will appoint a lawyer as amicus curiae to assist us in the matter,“ Chief Justice Chellur said.

The bench was hearing two PILs one by Thane resident Vikrant Tawde seeking judicial inquiry into the stampede and another filed by Smita Mayank Dhruva, president of Congress's South Mumbai division, seeking railways to take measures for better crowd management.

Oct 08 2017 : The Economic Times (Bangalore)
Cry of the City
Divya Rajagopal & Rahul Sachitanand
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Drastic and rapid measures may be needed to rescue four key business hubs in Mumbai that are suffering the consequences of unchecked expansion. But is it too late?
Before the stampede in late September, at least 100 Twitter users implored the Railways to do something about the daily monster crush at the Elphinstone over bridge where the tragedy unfolded that resulted in 23 fatalities. Their pleas were ignored. In late August, when rain deluged India's commercial capital, the familiar parts of the city crumbled and horrific memories of the 2005 inundation worsened an already bad situation as people rushed to get home. The city's corporation directed offices to shut well after many of its occupants had already spent hours on the road, or were stuck in local trains marooned on flooded tracks. Every day, around a dozen people fall off Mumbai's overcrowded locals, as they struggle to get to work. The decrepit roads meanwhile riled the Bombay High Court so much that it directed the city's administrators to set up a nodal agency to monitor and fix them.

Mumbai has historically relied on a series of band-aids to overcome repeated bruising to its infrastructure, but it appears time for more serious surgery has come. In the city's commercial hubs, this infrastructure vacuum is being most acutely felt. Juxtapose the fancy glass towers with primeval rail way stations -many built in the 19th century, with minimal modernisation over the decades -and it's a ragged picture straight out of dystopia. If railway bridges are being packed to the point of stampede or collapse (as tragically illustrated at Elphinstone), the workforce in the Bandra-Kurla Complex in suburban Mumbai is spending thrice the time they should for a 3-km ride to a train station, fighting to get in line for an auto and a bigger battle to get on a packed train. Even as the state government has embarked on a wildly ambitious `70,000 crore overhaul, harried workers reckon that their priorities may be misplaced. To try to understand what ails these hubs, ET Magazine spoke to a cross-section of people working there, some civic agencies and urban planners to write out a much-needed prescription for Mumbai Inc to fix itself.
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Oct 08 2017 : The Economic Times (Bangalore)
ELPHINSTONE & PAREL - Hanging by a Thread
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A recent report by Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation, a PSU focused on subur ban rail capacity enhancement, shows that the three stations of Elphinstone, Lower Parel and Mahalaxmi have the highest passenger load on the Western Railway line, of 4 lakh, during morning peak-hour travel (8.309.30 am). The south Mumbai stations of Charni Road, Marine Lines and Churchgate -gateways to the older commercial hubs and markets -in contrast ferry half as many commuters (see Higher Load on Stations...).Clearly, central Mumbai is now the official financial hub of the city, not the downtown zones of Nariman Point or Fort area, the erstwhile central business districts. The redevelopment of at least 60 cotton mills -most of them located between the Elphinstone and Mahalaxmi stations on the western rail line and between Dadar and Byculla on the Central line -began in the early '90s. Large parcels of land became available for commercial, retail and residential development. One crucial element of the development was, however, forgotten: the upgradation of the colonialera stations adjoining the newly-created malls and skyscrapers that were once mills and one or two-storey chawls to accommodate the workers.

In the four years starting from 2008, Lower Parel alone witnessed the launch of nine major projects with nearly 8 million sq ft office space, more than the entire Nariman Point. The total office space at the central business district on the tip of south Mumbai that was built on reclaimed land is 6 million sq ft, and was absorbed and used over 40 years. Till the 2000s, it was the hub of Mumbai commerce -until the newer alternatives emerged. The office spaces in central Mumbai have now grown to nearly 11 million sq ft.How much more can they grow?
“Further urban development in this area can be permitted only after the infrastructure level exceeds carrying capacity. It's not rocket science -infrastructure capacity needs to be augmented and it can be done but if there is willingness,“ said Chandrashekhar Prabhu, a senior urban planning expert. Prabhu thinks that existing flyovers around central Mumbai and their pillars can be augmented to take the additional load of elevated flyovers above them. There are approved plans for elevated train tracks above the existing routes, but they have remained on paper for years.

Shubhranshu Pani, managing director, strategic consulting, JLL India, a real estate consulting firm, says that as an immediate measure there needs to be quality closed-loop feeder route services that will pick and drop commuters to and from offices and stations of Central Mumbai. “This will help decongest traffic and reduce private transport on roads. If trains arrive every three minutes, shuttle buses can be deployed at a frequency of every 10 minutes. If the government cannot operate them, private operators will be keen as this will be a profitable proposition,“ Pani suggests.

Neha Mungekar, 30, was on the fated Elphinstone overbridge two days before the stampede to map out various options for crowd dispersal. The architect who is a senior associate at the WRI Ross Centre for Sustainable Cities has been working on ways to decongest Central Mumbai. “Only 8% of the taxpaying population use cars; even in those families that have cars, half of the members end up using public transport or the footpath for their daily movement. So, we said instead of looking at how to accommodate vehicles in our existing infra, let's look at people movement where you make walking or cycling the preferred mode of transportation,“ Mungekar explains.

The plan seems ambitious and daunting but Mungekar says there are ample public spaces available that can be utilised to build walkways or foot-over bridges that can connect the busy streets of central and western part of the city. “People in Mumbai walk out of compulsion, but if you design the pedestrian paths in a way that considers the convenience of the people, I think we can solve the congestion in these areas,“ Mungekar adds. She also sees enterprising opportunities to tackle the parking mess of the commercial districts -parking spots lying vacant in the residential high-rises can be rented out to employees of those working around; perhaps an app could indicate the vacant spots, which could be monetised by the surrounding apartments.

“I think incidents such as the Elphinstone stamped should make us look at wider corrections rather than narrow solutions. We cannot wait for another disaster to strike, it is inexcusable,“ says Mungekar.

Oct 08 2017 : The Economic Times (Bangalore)
BANDRA KURLA COMPLEX - Complex Problem
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Getting into the train at Bandra is an adventure and get ting off at Andheri is scarier,“ is how Nipun Trehan, an executive with an entertainment channel who works in the sprawling business hub, describes his daily jaunt to work.From Andheri he then wades through another mass of people to board a crowded metro to Saki Naka. For barely 9 km, he endures a near 90-minute commute. The road wouldn't be any better at peak hour.

While the Western Express Highway is a couple of km away, the newer Santacruz Chembur Link Road (SCLR), ostensibly created to improve east-west connectivity, passes through next door. Neither road does much to ease the pain of daily commuters.“Even if you manage to get into an auto to Bandra and Kurla stations, both entrances are a nightmare,“ says 30-year old receptionist Clara James. “Bandra East (the entrance serving BKC) has one rickety entrance, and garbage is piled over the first couple of platforms; and in Kurla the entrance is packed with people, buses and autos all fighting for the same small area.“

While the BKC has become a magnet for large corporations, at tracting financial heavyweights like Citibank, ICICI Bank and IDFC Bank, for employees working there it's a daily struggle.The SCLR was touted as a much-needed relief, but poor design has upended many of those claims. On the other side, a perennially jammed Western Express Highway has only got worse with the onset of metro construction. “Driving home (17 km away) has now become a 17-km, 90-minute or two-hour endurance test,“ says Salil Doshi, a mid-manager with a financial services company. “Traffic, metro work and potholes com bine to give you a daily drive from hell.“

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority or MMRDA has been through at least three different versions of fixing this gridlock. First, it considered a couple of subways to clear the bottlenecks around the complex, then it enlisted a private advisory to streamline traffic in the complex and, as of 2014, it embarked on an ambitious plan to build three new flyovers to fix this problem. In the medium term, the construction of a new metro line, with stops within the complex, might offer another option for commuters, even if that project is at least two years away from completion.

Already, more ambitious projects are afoot to ease access to this business district. For example, work on a flyover connecting BKC to the Bandra Worli Sea Link -which leads to central and south Mumbai -has commenced, as has another to lift traffic over the chaos at its Kurla entrance. In the next three or four years, the arrival of a metro line (No. 2B) from DN Nagar to the west, to Bandra and ending at Mankhurd, 9 km to the east, is also expected to help. A plan to have hybrid AC buses (running on diesel and electric power), which will connect Kurla, Bandra and Sion stations to the complex, should hit the roads this months too. “BKC needs more options to get us home and to work,“ says Ganesh Koli, an office assistant with a bank.“Having a world-class complex with sub-standard infrastructure is an insult to all of us working here.“

Experts say that a high-visibility solution like multiple flyovers isn't just costly, but often superfluous.“At best these flyovers can be part of the solution, not at the core of it,“ says Ashok Datar, a traffic and urban planning expert in Mumbai.“Instead, streamlining traffic and the extended use of bus lanes to improve access can be a far better solution.“ A year-long pilot project to provide dedicated bus lanes saw access to Bandra and Kurla station drop from 37 minutes at peak hour to 15. Datar contends that this bus lane idea can be extended on the WE Highway too, as far as Dahisar, 30 km to the north. “BKC needs projects that can efficiently move many people efficiently. What it doesn't need are empty, vain boasts.“ Rather than AC buses, a more efficient transport mass transport system may be needed for BKC to be considered a truly world-class business complex. Until then, for the likes of Trehan, James and Doshi, gritting their teeth and bearing it may be the best option.
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Oct 08 2017 : The Economic Times (Bangalore)
ANDHERI - Gridlocked in Suburbia
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One of the busiest suburban railway stations of the city, Andheri receives footfalls of six lakh people from 8-10am every day. It is the entry and exit point for those travelling from Navi Mumbai, the satellite town, and the eastern suburbs through the newly-constructed metro rail and the western suburbs, making it one of the busiest spots of the city. Besides being the constant subject of internet memes, Andheri once considered a infrastructure nightmare has seen an incremental transformation in the last decade thanks to the Mumbai Metro rail -a 11 km stretch that connects the western suburb to the east. The metro has received its share of flak.“The high fares are leading to underutilisation of the service,“ feels Hussain Z Indorewala, an urban researcher with the organisation Collective for Spatial Alternatives. But still it is an alternative for the scores of commuters whose travel time has been cut by almost an hour.

As the metro upgradation took place, the foot-over bridges too were widened, yet the sheer population density makes the overcrowding difficult to manage. Indorewala's organisation had also carried an accessibility survey of the suburban railway stations that looked at how disabledfriendly these important stations are.The results were not encouraging.There was only 37% compliance to the railway guidelines at disabledfriendly stations, he says. Even basic facilities like guiding paths are absent according to the study which came out on the direction of a Bombay High Court order. “If you are making your stations disabled-friendly, by default it ensures comfort even for the rest of the commuters.“ Aparna Ramachandran, a resident of Versova and a daily commuter from Andheri station, thinks that commuters have given up on basic comfort while travelling. “Looking at the number of women who use the public transport, I am surprised why there aren't more women-only compartments,“ she says. Ramachandran, who migrated to Mumbai in 2007, points out that the suburban rail network gave her mobility which no other transport system provides in the city, but what startled her was how people of Mumbai compromised on comfort for convenience. “Why can't we have access and comfort together?“ asks Ramachandran who works as creative director in a digital media firm. An immediate measure that should be taken in response to the Elphinstone stampede especially in stations like Andheri, she reckons, is to have railway traffic cops regulate the flow of people. The vigilance of station-keepers is the most important aspect to ensure that people don't overcrowd. There need to be enough shelters so that people don't have to crowd up on bridges to save themselves from rain as it happened at Elphinstone, she adds.

Andheri for years has been the exit point of employers reaching out to the oldest special economic zone -the 45-year-old Santacruz Electronic Export Processing Zone -which houses some of the biggest IT parks and diamond trading companies. One would expect that a commercial hub that contributes billions of rupees to the country's economy would be kept in better shape, but just like most of crumbling infrastructure of key economic points, the state is still struggling to upgrade its cash cow.
Additional reporting by Kailash Babar

A Hindi news channel probably News24 does a programme on some viral news on social media. Someone circulated information on a unique railway station under the Kota division of WCR. The northern end of this station PF is part of Mandsaur District in Madhya Pradesh while the southern end falls under Jhalawar District of Rajasthan.

This news was confirmed to be true, which I am sharing with you guys through a Wikipedia link: